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Weekend In Whitby

The X9OC have an 'Anniversary Weekend' every year - the first was in 2003 if I recall correctly.We usually decide on a venue for next year after the rideout on the Saturday although it's never fixed at that point.We have visited many of the corners of England and Wales, trying to find places reasonably accessible to most members.

This year we are meeting in Whitby, a seaside town and port popular with tourists, situated on the North-East coast in the county of North Yorkshire.

Its fishing fleet, once very important, is somewhat diminished but is still thriving, catching lobsters, crabs, cod, haddock and salmon. Herring and whales featured in the past!

Whitby has a ruined abbey and is mentioned in 'Dracula' amongst other literary works, film and television.

I've ridden part of the way, having the time to spend two days on the journey, and am staying in a hotel/motel in Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.It's 199 miles from home to here.

Tomorrow's ride is about 160 miles, part of which is over the Pennines, the oft-named Backbone of England.

Whicherver way you go enjoy Whitby. And if you havent been there ride down to Robin Hoods Bay, park at the top and have a wander round the village. Lots of little alleys leading between the cottages, gorgeous place.If your feeling brave / daft check out the Boggle Hole ford :-)

I'll pass on the ford. I dropped the blue Silverwing in one near Ware. I wouldn't have used it but the road through the village was closed and there was no alternative. I had to be rescued as I was trapped under the bike. I got rather wet!

Sorry mate, North Yorkshire aces your Durham Dales, an obscure area I had to Wikipedia to find out where it was. Now I know what part of County Durham it's in bleak comes to mind, it's OK around Barnard Castle way but in contrast there's nowt muchonce you're up in the windy wilds of Tow Law.

North Yorkshire has the proper Dales the Yorkshire ones, the North Yorkshire Moors, the Howardian Hills, the afore mentioned Whitby, and Robin Hoods Bay, great little market towns like Thirsk, Pickering, Northallerton, Ripon, and Skipton. Apart from getting through the seemingly permanently traffic congested spa town of Harrogate, riding here is good fun. Off the scoot Harrogate is well worth a wander round.

Then there's York with the Minster and almost intact city walls, Fountains Abbey, Ampleforth, there's great food, restaurants, cafés, farm shops, breweries, shopping etc. We've got some great little breweries here in North Yorkshire like Black Sheep in Masham, and even Newcastle Brown is now brewed a few miles down the road in Tadcaster.

There's a couple of us from York ride for a pot of tea and a Fat Rascal to one of the branches of Bettys Café Tea Rooms fairly regularly, no bikers cafes for us. But if you're into that scene then Squires is also just a few miles past Tadcaster in Sherburn-in-Elmet.

My wife and I will be spending the month of July in Yorkshire visiting most of the places that you and Mildrew mention in your posts. A few Betty's tea rooms are no doubt on my wife's list. I am really looking forward to the trip as I have spent very little time in the north having spent most of my formative years living in Surrey.We are renting a small car but I am tempted to bring my helmet over, or buy a new one there and seek out a two wheeled rental to take in some of the roads. In 2007 I rode from North Allerton to Heysham to catch the ferry to the Isle of Man. It was one of the best rides I have ever had. The Yorkshire Dales and Moors have been calling me ever since!

Aye Meldrew,Well I do conceed that some areas of Durham are a little rough and the natives still eat their first born. But that's just cultural differences, it doesn't make them a bunch of inbred trolls bad people.Then again there again there are parts of Yorkshire that the missionaries never got to... or if they did they never came back :-)

I visited Goatland in Yorkshire where they filmed Heartbeat, a really interesting place, just like the film set ( or it was). Trouble was, coming back, I took a wrong turn and ended up in a forest and then on a moorland. Eventually I found the main road back, a very interesting day that was.